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| 0108 |
Southern Tibet : vol.1 |
Citation Information
OCR Text
Arabs reckoned the Tibetans amongst the Turks. Edrisi's Tibet, i. e. Ladak, is
in communication with Ferghana and the Turks further north, which also very likely
was the case in a much higher degree than now. Amongst the products exported
from Tibet, are mentioned musk and rhubarb, both very characteristic things for
Tibet. The capital of Tibet, i. e. Leh, is well fortified and built on a hill, and at
its foot a river runs, — the Indus. ¹
The King of Tibet has a great army. Of course Edrisi could not know his
name. But the Rev. A. H. FRANCKE tells us that about 1125 to 1150 the King of
Ladak was Lha chen Utpala, son of Lha chen rgyalpo. ²He united the forces
of Upper and Lower Ladakh, subjected all the vassal chiefs, and even conquered
a new province, Lowo, east of Purang; so that his empire was perhaps even
greater than that of Nyima gon . . . He also invaded Kulu, and the King of Kulu
bound himself by oath, 'so long as the glaciers of the Kailasa do not melt away,
or the Manasarowar Lake dry up, to pay his tribute to the King of Ladakh' . . .²
Nyima gon's empire as shown on a map by the Rev. A. H. Francke, embraced
eastwards, the whole upper basin of the Indus, Satlej and Brahmaputra. And
now we hear that Edrisi's king of Tibet was perhaps mightier still. Lha chen
Utpala's Empire is very likely the same as Edrisi's Tibet.
Another question is whether Edrisi's fortified city Tibet, can be identical with
Leh. Francke has found that the dynasty of the ancient kings of Leh had taken
their name after Kesar, an old saga or epic song which enjoyed great popularity
in about 1000 A. D.³ The first royal palace at Leh was built by Trashi nam-
gyal, about 1500—1530, and the present castle of Leh, the favourite residence of
the later kings, was completed in three years during the reign of Sengge namgyal,
about 1590—1620.⁴ But there may have been buildings on this picturesque hill al-
ready in the time of Edrisi.⁵
A difficulty is presented in the statement that the river Indus flows east-
wards, and empties itself into the lake of Berwan. But this may easily have been a
misunderstanding of Edrisi, and the original information must have been that the
river came from lake Berwan and flowed westwards.⁶
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